Where Islam spreads, freedom dies

Member of the "Free Syrian Army" with stolen priest's garment and cross, Homs

A few months ago, in a blog post, I wondered whether the Syrian jihadist rebels were taking advantaging of the chaos the country is in to destroy symbols of the country's Christian heritage, like the famous crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers. As these images of plundered churches show, it is now clear that they have gone much further than that.

Plundered church in Bustan Al-Diwan, Homs old town

Church in Um Al Zinar, now roofless thanks to the Syrian rebels

Why are our governments continuing to agitate for action against the Syrian government when it is overwhelmingly clear that the toppling of the Assad regime will produce the same result as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, etc., in other words jihadistscoming to power? Perhaps you could excuse some of their naivety initially. But when they learn no lessons from their mistakes, you have to ask: what is going on? Are they really so spectacularly naive or do they have some other agenda? The history of the 20th century is chock-full of episodes in which conniving western governments thought they could exploit jihadists for their own ends, only to discover the jihadists weren't quite as amenable as their foolish western backers had hoped.

I have wondered for decades why the supposedly Christian West is so indifferent to the huge plight of Christians in Muslim countries. Because Muslims know of this indifference, they have no fear of committing the most horrific acts of barbarity against a defenceless Christian population.

Just imagine if the West came out and stated, and actually demonstrated, the serious consequences of attacking Christians. You can bet that each and every Muslim would protect Christians. Moreover, most if not all Muslims would convert Christianity.

Muslims are pragmatic people. The whole essence of Islam is that it is a powerful and conquering religion. If the Christians West showed conclusively that it was not so, and Christianity was really the FORCE, then Muslims would simply leave Islam.

In fact, if the Coulter proposition had been adopted post 9/11, there would be peace on the planet, with far less Muslim casualties then at the present, and with no peace in sight. Moreover ex-Muslim nations would be advancing culturally, becoming a light for others to follow.

And even if that didn't happen, Muslims would cease terrorism simply because of the dire consequences for Islam.

The consequence of our liberation of Iraq and making it a "democracy", is that Christians have been ethnically cleansed from Iraq. A similar situation is happening throughout the ME. Syria is the only country where Christians were free to practice their religion publicly and without fear. It is also the most culturally advanced country in the ME for women.

If the West succeeds in toppling the Assad government, what will happen to Christians and other non-sunni people, will be worse then what happened in Iraq. I'm sure that our politicians know this, or at least there strategists do.

Overall result, for all practical purposes, there will be no Christians in the ME. Jews have already been ethnically cleansed.

This is a terrible outcome of our policies but there are advantages, though it is cruel and inappropriate to conjecture.